Monday 12th February

 My face is glowing from sun and wind and sea air;

 We went down to the coast with my father for the first of hopefully many lovely outings with the new very foldy wheelchair. It looks like Summer! (It wasn't!) There was a fresh cold breeze but we were reasonably well wrapped up.

Honestly, the first trip with the wheelchair reminded me of the first trip with a new baby. I'm not referring to my father, more unfolding the wheelchair for real in the car park (we had practiced a lot at home, but even so...) and working out how the lap belt fastened, and how to arrange a blanket comfortably on his lap, and how to wrap a scarf around his head and neck to keep him warm...

I think we spent nearly an hour on the promenade watching a toddler flying this kite which his young parents had painstakingly assembled and launched for him, and just staring at the sea and the distant wind turbines which faded in and out of view s the sun caught the blades, and wandering along the short pier.

He said he enjoyed it very much, and is looking forward to the next trip - I'm so pleased. We had a good time to, both on our own account and also because he was clearly so happy.

I have now abandoned all other knitting projects while I swiftly knit ankle warmers for my father to cover the gap between trousers and shoes. I have used some chunky yarn, I think it is real wool, or at least fairly woolly, 6.5mm needles and cast on 36 stitches which I hope will be about 10-11 inches long. I shall knit rows until the length is heading for 9.5 inches long and bind off. Then I shall sew the cast on and bound off edges together and hopefully have a slightly stretchy tube that can be easily pulled on over the bottom of his trousers. The hat I made in Advent has also now found a use. I'm not sure if he has any gloves but I am sure that a pair of Teddy Glove Puppets, also from Advent, will NOT be to his taste! We might have some spare gloves somewhere in a basket of gloves and scarves etc.

I am making a small portable Commonplace book to keep in my coat pocket or my tiny handbag. 

I find browsing through the random writings a very effective distraction when I have severely run out of breath. I'm not sure how this works, but by the time I have read a few pages everything - breathing and associated states of mind - have somehow settled back down. It might very probably take exactly the same amount of time without something to distract me, but the process of reading short snatches and paragraphs seems to de-stress the situation very quickly for me.